Re: [dvd-discuss] Slightly OT - Japanese copyrights

[Noah silva <nsilva(at)atari-source.com>]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2002, Ronald Austin wrote:

> If this is too much off topic let me know and I won't do it again. :-)
> 
> I am a  fan of foreign (non American) flims. I have been a subscriber to the 
> International Channel for quite a while and noticed fewer of the Japanese 
> dramas and flims are subtitled nowdays. This prompted me to e-mail the  
> International Channel's customer service and ask if they would show more 
> subttiled shows. I didn't expect an answer, but the one I got really suprised 
> me. Here is the part that caught my eye.
> 
> "In a nutshell, the Japanese government has ruled programming 
> originating in Japan is created for the benefit of Japanese, 
> and so English subtitles would constitute a violation of their 
> copyright law."

That doesn't make any sense.  Sure of course programming in japanese made
in japan is mainly for the benefit of Japanese people, but that doesn't
explain how or why it would be illegal to subtitle it, just why it often
isn't subtitled.  I can see how it might be against government policy to
spend public money on something like that that benefits mainly foreignors,
but not trying to prevent it totally.  Besides, if that were true, there
wouldn't be the large volume of [official] subtitled anime, etc. being
produced that there is.  BTW, in japan, it is quite common to have things
subtitles in Japanese (I mean like Closed captioning, but as a part of the
video signal, not a seperate add-on).  

It might be a violation of copyright to take something and sub-title it
and re-release it (I would think it would be!).  so maybe they meant:
a.) Things are often produced without subtitles because there isn't much
benefit to add english subtitles for japanese people.
b.) There isn't enough of a market for everything to be subtitled.
c.) Doing it yourself and distributing it is illegal since it isn't
sanctioned.

> I have a wall full of Japanese flims, and Ainme and a lot of it is subtitled 
> or dubbed so why the change?

and a lot of new stuff comes out that continues to be.
 
> If this was the end of the e-mail I would have forgotten about it, But they 
> also sent me a list of websites that have "FanSubbed"  copies for sale and 
> trade. Now fan subbing may be a violation of copyright but it has been 
> tolerated by the Japanese studios mostly because it's too small a market to 
> do any harm.  Them not allowing a licensed comercial company to export 
> subtitled dramas just seems too strange.
> 
> Anybody here ever have any dealing with the Japanese copyright law?

Well I can say that it is in some ways worse than ours.
 
> I am going to e-mail FujiTV and ask about subtitles on their dramas.

btw: if you want something subtitled or translated, let me know ;)  I have
been back and forth to Japan and understand the language fairly
well.  (actually I am going back something like june-august).

 -- noah silva 

> Ronald
>